Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

Transcription

1 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage November 2018 H Abstract This design guide describes the architecture, design, configuration, and sizing of a converged infrastructure for Microsoft Hyper-V with Dell EMC 14G rack servers, Unity storage, S-Series switches, and data protection products. Dell EMC Solutions

2 Copyright The information in this publication is provided as is. Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. Copyright 2018 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell Technologies, Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Intel, the Intel logo, the Intel Inside logo and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners. Published in the USA 11/18 H Dell Inc. believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice. 2 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

3 Contents Contents Chapter 1 Introduction... 5 Ready Stack overview... 6 Key benefits... 6 Document purpose... 7 Audience... 8 We value your feedback... 8 Chapter 2 Ready Stack Architecture... 9 Overview Existing infrastructure requirements Ready Stack architecture Key components Chapter 3 Configurations and Specifications Introduction Recommended platforms and components Design configurations and specifications Ready Stack scaling Chapter 4 Ready Stack Design Introduction Compute design Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 3

4 Contents Network design Storage design Management design Chapter 5 References Dell EMC documentation Microsoft documentation Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

5 Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 1 Introduction This chapter presents the following topics: Ready Stack overview... 6 Key benefits... 6 Document purpose... 7 Audience... 8 We value your feedback... 8 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 5

6 Chapter 1: Introduction Ready Stack overview With more choice and complexity, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage IT infrastructure in a data center. Making changes to data center infrastructure can significantly affect stability, performance, costs, and upgradability. Dell EMC Ready Stack is proven, tested, and optimized to help organizations meet longterm data center needs for a variety of mixed workloads. Ready Stack provides the simplicity of a complete, yet flexible, validated converged infrastructure (CI) that is based on the following components: Dell EMC Unity storage Dell EMC PowerEdge servers Dell EMC S-Series switches Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance (IDPA) DP4400 backup solution Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization platform This Dell EMC Ready Stack provides: One trusted vendor for all CI stack components compute, storage, networking, and data protection Design and deployment guidance that incorporates interoperability testing and best practices Design guidance that focuses on scale, flexibility, and high availability Key benefits This Ready Stack provides the following key benefits: Resiliency The Ready Stack architecture ensures that no single point of failure exists. Redundancy is incorporated in the critical aspects of the Ready Stack, which includes server high-availability features, redundant networking, and multipath storage. Virtualization support We designed this Ready Stack for general-purpose virtualized workloads. Each server is equipped with suitable processing power, memory, and converged network adapters that support Ethernet and Fibre Channel (FC) as required for virtualization. Other Unity models are also supported. Scalability You can configure this Ready Stack to suit your specific needs for a virtualized infrastructure. The Ready Stack supports flexibility in the form of various options, including server model, number of compute servers, server processor model, server memory capacity, type of FC storage, and FC storage capacity. Powerful all-flash storage This Ready Stack for Microsoft Hyper-V solution uses the Unity x50f All Flash storage platform. With all-inclusive software, these all-flash systems deliver consistent performance with low response times and are a perfect fit for mixed virtual workload requirements. Integrated data protection The IDPA preconfigured backup solution combines protection storage and software, search, analytics, and simplified management. 6 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

7 Chapter 1: Introduction Integrated management This Ready Stack includes integrated management through Dell EMC OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center (OMIMSSC) for System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). Microsoft SCCM provides patch management, software distribution, operating system deployment, network access protection, and hardware/software inventory and control. Microsoft SCVMM is a management solution that was developed for the virtualized data center. It can be used to configure and manage virtualized host, networking, and storage resources to create and deploy virtual machines and services to private, hybrid, and/or public clouds. Document purpose OMI helps automate and simplify hardware configuration as well as deployment of operating systems running on Dell EMC PowerEdge 14th generation servers. OMIMSSC offers agentless, out-of-band (OOB) hardware configuration, patching, and deployment. The Dell EMC Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 (idrac9) is the OOB management tool for Dell EMC PowerEdge rack servers. It has its own HTML5- based UI and can be accessed by using various methods, such as SSH, RACADM, and the Redfish API. idrac9 Group Manager provides a one-to-many console for accessing the details of multiple servers. As needed, administrators can also use Dell EMC OpenManage Enterprise (OME) and OME Modular Edition to manage server content that is accessible through idrac9. The IDPA DP4400 backup solution is supported for Hyper-V environments. The IDPA System Manager provides an HTML5-based UI to simplify and automate data protection management, monitoring, and reporting. This Ready Stack design guide provides design principles, best practices, architectural guidance, and sample configurations for compute, management, networking, and storage. Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 7

8 Chapter 1: Introduction Audience We value your feedback This guide is for Dell EMC personnel, channel partners, and end users. Dell EMC and the authors of this document welcome your feedback on the Ready Stack and the Ready Stack documentation. Contact the Dell EMC Solutions team with your comments. Authors: Robert Percy, Scott Stanford, Tom Chatham, David Hartman, Aighne Kearney The Ready Stack Knowledge Center provides links to additional documentation for this solution. 8 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

9 Chapter 2: Ready Stack Architecture Chapter 2 Ready Stack Architecture This chapter presents the following topics: Overview Existing infrastructure requirements Ready Stack architecture Key components Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 9

10 Chapter 2: Ready Stack Architecture Overview Installing, configuring, and running a production-ready CI involves multiple considerations, including: Operating system and virtualization software distributions Selection of monitoring and management software Allocation of cluster services and data storage to physical nodes and arrays Selection of appropriate server hardware Design of the network fabric Sizing and scalability Performance requirements The need to understand the types of workloads that will be running on the cluster and the challenges of managing a system that is designed to accommodate multiple generalpurpose, virtualized workloads complicates these considerations. Dell EMC s customer-centered approach is to create rapidly deployable and highly optimized CI solutions running on enterprise-class hardware. Dell EMC solutions combine hardware, software, and services to streamline deployment and improve the customer experience. Dell EMC Ready Stack systems can include all the hardware, software, resources, and services that are needed to run a scalable, highly available CI environment. This approach means that organizations can be operational in a shorter time than is typically possible with homegrown solutions. The architecture design for this Ready Stack incorporates storage and networking best practices to ensure availability, serviceability, and scalability. Existing infrastructure requirements Implementing this Ready Stack requires that the following infrastructure elements be present in the existing data center or configured at the time of deployment: A Domain Name System (DNS) server on the management network A Network Time Protocol (NTP) server on the management network An Ethernet infrastructure Dell EMC recommends a 10/25 GbE or 40/100 GbE infrastructure. Additional components, such as Dell Networking cables and transceivers, are required to uplink the Ready Stack to the network. The specific component requirements depend on your networking and uplink requirements. Sufficient power and cooling to support the Ready Stack. Contact your Dell EMC Sales representative for more information about the power and cooling requirements for the Ready Stack for Microsoft Hyper-V with Unity Storage solution. 10 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

11 Chapter 2: Ready Stack Architecture Ready Stack architecture This Ready Stack architecture includes compute servers, data protection, management servers, LAN switches, SAN switches, storage arrays, and OOB switches. The following figure shows the architecture for this Ready Stack for Microsoft Hyper-V with Unity Storage solution. Figure 1. Dell EMC Ready Stack design architecture Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 11

12 Chapter 2: Ready Stack Architecture Key components Compute The Dell EMC portfolio of PowerEdge rack servers is designed to optimize application performance. These servers support intuitive tools to help simplify and automate tasks over the entire server life cycle. Every data center and virtual environment has unique requirements, and PowerEdge technology provides the flexibility needed to build a scalable Hyper-V infrastructure. PowerEdge R440 server A 1U, 2-socket server platform that supports up to 16 DIMM slots, drives, and 2 PCIe cards. The R440 server is built on a scalable architecture that provides the choice and flexibility to optimize performance and density. PowerEdge R640 server A 1U 2-socket server platform that supports up to 24 DIMM slots, drives, and 3 PCIe cards. The scalable business architecture of the R640 server is designed to maximize application performance and provide the flexibility to optimize configurations that are based on the application and use case. PowerEdge R740/740xd server A 2U, 2-socket server platform that supports up to 24 DIMM slots, drives, and 8 PCIe cards and delivers a balance between storage scalability and performance. This platform is ideal for software-defined storage (SDS), service providers, or as virtual desktop infrastructure. The PowerEdge R740 server is designed to accelerate application performance by using accelerator cards and storage scalability. The R740xd versatility is shown in its ability to mix any drive type to create the optimum configuration of NVMe, SSD, and HDD for either performance, capacity, or both. All the PowerEdge models used in this Ready Stack use idrac9. Embedded in every PowerEdge server, idrac 9 provides secure and remote server access for a multitude of common management functions. idrac with Lifecycle Controller operates regardless of the operating system state or the presence of a hypervisor. It also offers a complete set of server management features, including configuration, operating system deployment, firmware updates, health monitoring, and maintenance. idrac9 provides a variety of remote connectivity interfaces and protocols, enabling administrators to securely configure, deploy, manage, monitor, and update the server. IPMI, Redfish, SMASH-CLP, and WS-Man are common standard management interfaces that idrac9 supports. The idrac9 HTLM5 Web UI provides secure connectivity through HTTPS. The new Group Manager 14G feature is available with an idrac9 Enterprise license. With this feature, administrators can create a one-to-many console experience. This experience enables them to view and manage a set of servers rather than visually inspect the servers for faults and manage them manually. 12 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

13 Chapter 2: Ready Stack Architecture The following figure shows the idrac9 user interface. Figure 2. Dell EMC idrac9 user interface Networking Network design is a key aspect of the Ready Stack architecture and consists of these functional groups: OOB network LAN SAN OOB The key building block of the OOB network is the Dell EMC S4148T-ON switch, which provides 48 ports of 10GBase-T and multiple uplink port options. Using two S4148T-ON switches referred to as the management switches provides redundancy. LAN LAN connectivity is provided through the Dell EMC S5232-ON switch, which provides up to 72 ports of 25 GbE or up to 48 ports of 25 GbE and 6 ports of 100 GbE. Using two S5232-ON switches referred to as the top-of-rack (ToR) switches provides redundancy. The management hosts, which are rackmount servers, are directly connected to the ToR switches through built-in NICs. SAN For FC storage traffic, Ready Stack uses Dell EMC Connectrix MDS-9148T switches. MDS-9148T switches deliver up to 16 Gbps FC performance and scale from 12 to 96 ports, as follows: DS6505B This switch comes by default with twelve 8/16 Gbps ports enabled. The ports on demand (POD) license can enable the remaining 12 ports, yielding 24 ports in total. DS6510B This switch comes by default with twenty-four 8/16 Gbps ports enabled. The POD license can enable the remaining 24 ports, yielding 48 ports in total. For more information, consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 13

14 Chapter 2: Ready Stack Architecture Connectrix MDS Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) enables storage and SAN administrators to troubleshoot the health and performance of the Connectrix MDS family of products. DCNM simplifies SAN deployment by providing wizard- and template-based provisioning and configuration with an easy-to-use interface. Storage The Dell EMC Unity All Flash product line sets new standards for storage with compelling simplicity, modern design, flexible deployments, and affordable prices. Unity All Flash storage systems implement an integrated architecture for block, file, and virtual hard disks, with concurrent support for native NAS, iscsi, and FC protocols. Each system uses dual storage processors, full 12 Gb SAS back-end connectivity, and Dell EMC s patented multicore architected operating environment to deliver performance and efficiency. Additional storage capacity is added by using Disk Array Enclosures (DAEs), and online controller upgrades are available for additional performance. Unity all-flash technology supports file and block environments, point-in-time snapshots, thin clones, synchronous and asynchronous replication, integrated encryption, tiering to the cloud, and deep ecosystem integration with VMware, Microsoft, and OpenStack software. Data reduction Dell EMC data reduction includes deduplication and compression logic. The Unity data reduction features are available for block LUNs and datastores in an all-flash pool. Administrators can enable Unity data reduction at the resource level so that storage resources with and without data reduction enabled can exist in the same pool on a system. Data reduction savings can be set at the system level, pool level, and resource level among others, providing varying levels of granularity. Dynamic pools Dynamic pools present an entirely redesigned pool structure that increases the flexibility of configuration options within a Unity system. Dynamic pools replace the existing pool technology as the default pool type created within Unisphere for Unity All Flash systems. Similarly to traditional pools, dynamic pools can be created, expanded, and deleted, and they also include other improvements. Expansion of a dynamic pool can be as granular as adding a single drive to the pool to increase its capacity. This feature provides a fully flexible deployment model, which improves the planning and provisioning process and reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO). For more information, see Dell EMC Unity: Dynamic Pools. Host I/O limits Another feature of the Unity array is host I/O limits, which is the ability to limit the amount of I/O activity that the Unity system services. Host I/O limits can be applied on LUNs, VMware VMFS data stores, thin clones, and their associated attached snapshots. Use Host I/O limits to limit incoming host activity on the basis of IOPS, bandwidth, or both. Consider configuring Host I/O limits on LUNs or data stores that are consuming a large portion of the system s resources and reducing the performance of other resources on the system. Another Unity feature is burst policies for Host I/O Limits. This option, which is available for any Host I/O limit policy, enables host activity or traffic to exceed the base policy limit by a user-specified amount. The user specifies the amount as a percentage along with the duration and frequency of the I/O limit burst allowance. 14 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

15 Management interface: Unisphere Chapter 2: Ready Stack Architecture Dell EMC Unisphere, the HTML5 management interface for Unity arrays, can be used to present storage to all host servers. Unisphere displays system status and performance information, as shown in the following figure, to provide a graphical representation of the Unity system and highlight areas of interest such as drive faults and network link failures. Figure 3. Unisphere for Unity Microsoft components This Ready Stack for Microsoft Hyper-V with Unity Storage uses Windows Server The Windows Server 2016 operating system provides enhanced security, integrated containers, and support for new software-defined capabilities for modern data centers. Key features include: Resilient File System (ReFS) Enables faster placement of virtual machines (VMs) on the file system Software-defined networking Includes enhanced policies to control both physical and virtual networks Hyper-V Supports nested virtualization For more information, see the Microsoft article What's New in Windows Server Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 15

16 Chapter 2: Ready Stack Architecture Microsoft Hyper-V The Hyper-V server role in Windows Server enables the creation of a virtualized servercomputing environment within which users can create and manage VMs. These VMs are isolated from one another and can run different operating systems on the same physical computer. Key features in the Hyper-V server role in Windows Server 2016 include: Discrete device assignment Provides VMs with direct and exclusive access to some PCIe hardware devices Host resource protection Prevents a VM from using more than its share of resources Hot addition and removal of resources Allows addition and removal of network adapters and adjustments to the amount of memory while the VM is running Increased resources amount per VM Support for up to 12 TB of memory and 240 virtual CPUs (vcpus) for generation 2 VMs 16 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

17 Chapter 3: Configurations and Specifications Chapter 3 Configurations and Specifications This chapter presents the following topics: Introduction Recommended platforms and components Design configurations and specifications Ready Stack scaling Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 17

18 Chapter 3: Configurations and Specifications Introduction This chapter provides details about the recommended platforms for this Ready Stack for Microsoft Hyper-V with Unity Storage, component specifications for three sample configurations, and information about scaling Ready Stack. Recommended platforms and components This Ready Stack uses Dell EMC s latest enterprise-level rack servers, LAN switches, SAN switches, and all-flash storage arrays. It also includes platform management software that we carefully selected and tested. The following table lists the recommended platforms and components. Table 1. Recommended platforms and components Component Server platform LAN connectivity Details PowerEdge R440 PowerEdge R640 PowerEdge R740/R740xd Ethernet traffic: For leaf: 2 x Dell EMC Networking S5232-ON switches For spine (if needed): Dell EMC Networking Z9264F- ON switch SAN connectivity Connectrix DS6500 (6505B or 6510B) 16 Gbps FC switches OOB connectivity Storage array 2 x Dell EMC Networking S4148T-ON switches Two OOB management switches are recommended if high availability is desired. Unity 350F, 450F, 550F, or 650F All Flash storage platforms Management server platforms Data protection PowerEdge R640 PowerEdge R440 IDPA DP4400 Management software components OMIMSSC for SCCM and SCVMM Microsoft SCCM Microsoft SCVMM 18 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

19 Chapter 3: Configurations and Specifications Design configurations and specifications Overview This Ready Stack offers flexibility to address various virtualization use cases and workloads. Sizing a physical infrastructure for all virtualized workloads requires knowledge of all the individual workloads and their compute, memory, storage, and network performance requirements. After you have created one or more VM profiles that meet the Ready Stack requirements, approximate the physical infrastructure that is required to support VMs while also accounting for expected future growth. When finalizing sizing, ensure that you also consider server and storage maintenance requirements and virtualization features such as high availability. In cases where an approximation is not sufficient, a site survey is recommended. The following table details the small, medium, and large sample configurations of this Ready Stack. The configurations are based on a balanced VM profile of 2 vcpu, 6 GB of memory, a 60 GB virtual disk, and 50 IOPS. Table 2. Ready Stack sample configurations: Recommended components Configuration Number of VMs Number of vcpus vram size vdisk size IOPS Enterprise Small GB 4.8 TB 4,000 Enterprise Medium TB 14.4 TB 12,000 Enterprise Large TB 24 TB 20,000 The balanced VM profile totals for VMs, vcpus, vram, vdisk, and IOPS are based on an Intel SP Skylake generation 10 core per CPU configuration and a 2:1 virtual-to-physical CPU utilization ratio. Depending on VM profile requirements, the actual compute resource totals might vary compared to the values that are shown in the preceding table. For more information about tuning Ready Stack to meet infrastructure needs, consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. The following figure shows the Enterprise Large infrastructure configuration. Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 19

20 Chapter 3: Configurations and Specifications Figure 4. Dell EMC Ready Stack Enterprise Large configuration Enterprise Small The following table lists the component specifications for the Enterprise Small configuration. For more information, see the Management design section on page 33. Table 3. Enterprise Small component specifications Component Virtualization hosts Details 4 x R440 server Processor Memory Storage adapter 2 x Intel Xeon SP-6152 Family 512 GB: 16 x 32 GB DDR4 RDIMMs PERC H730p Local storage 2 x 120 GB SSD (RAID 1) Operating system volume Network HBA 2 x 16 GB microsd in Internal SD Module Mellanox CX4 LX Dual Port PCIe network interface card (NIC) QLogic 2692 Dual Port FC PCIe Card Operating system Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 Operating system License Datacenter Edition recommended. For more information, consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. 20 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

21 Chapter 3: Configurations and Specifications Component Management hosts Details 2 x PowerEdge R640 server Processor Memory Storage adapter 2 x Intel Xeon SP-6152 Family 512 GB: 16 x 32 GB DDR4 RDIMMs PERC H730p Local storage 2 x 120 GB SSD (RAID 1) OS volume Network HBA 2 x 16 GB microsd in Internal SD Module Mellanox CX4 LX Dual Port PCIe NIC QLogic 2692 Dual Port FC PCIe Card OS Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 Storage array Unity 350F All Flash 17 x 3.84TB SSD drives (RAID 5, 6,10) Networking OOB 2 x Dell EMC Networking S4148T-ON switches ToR 2 x Dell EMC Networking S5232-ON switches SAN fabric Connectrix DS6500 (6505B or 6510B) 16 Gbps FC switches Licenses Cable requirements 4 x idrac9 Enterprise Microsoft System Center Datacenter Edition OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center Note: By default, an evaluation license for five servers is available for OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center. For more information, consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. Consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. Enterprise Medium The following table lists the component specifications for the Enterprise Medium configuration. Table 4. Enterprise Medium component specifications Component Virtualization hosts Details 7 x PowerEdge R740 server Processor Memory Storage adapter 2 x Intel Xeon SP-6152 Family 512 GB: 16 x 32 GB DDR4 RDIMMs PERC H730p Local storage 2 x 120 GB SSD (RAID 1) OS volume Network 2 x 16 GB microsd in Internal SD Module Mellanox CX4 LX Dual Port NIC Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 21

22 Chapter 3: Configurations and Specifications Component Details HBA QLogic 2692 Dual Port FC PCIe Card OS Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 OS license Datacenter Edition recommended. For more information, consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. Management hosts 2 x PowerEdge R640 server Processor Memory Storage adapter 2 x Intel Xeon SP-6152 Family 512 GB: 16 x 32 GB DDR4 RDIMMs PERC H730p Local storage 2 x 120 GB SSD (RAID 5, 6, 10) OS volume Network HBA 2 x 16 GB microsd in Internal SD Module Mellanox CX4 LX Dual Port PCIe NIC QLogic 2692 Dual Port FC PCIe Card OS Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 Storage array Dell EMC Unity 450F All Flash 25 x 3.84TB SSD drives (RAID 5, 6,10) Networking OOB 2 x Dell EMC Networking S4148T-ON switches ToR SAN fabric 2 x Dell EMC Networking S5232-ON switches Connectrix DS6500 (6505B or 6510B) 16 Gbps FC switches Licenses Cable requirements 4 x idrac9 Enterprise Microsoft System Center Datacenter Edition OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center. Note: By default, an evaluation license for five servers is available. For more information, consult your Dell EMC representative. Consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. Enterprise Large The following table lists the component specifications for the Enterprise Large configuration. Table 5. Enterprise Large component specifications Component Virtualization hosts Details 13 x PowerEdge R640 server Processor Memory Storage adapter 2 x Intel Xeon SP-6152 Family 512 GB: 16 x 32 GB DDR4 RDIMMs PERC H730p Local storage 2 x 120 GB SSD (RAID 1) OS volume 2 x 16 GB microsd in Internal SD Module 22 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

23 Chapter 3: Configurations and Specifications Component Details Network HBA Mellanox CX4 LX Dual Port NIC QLogic 2692 Dual Port FC PCIe Card OS Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 OS license Datacenter Edition recommended. For more information, consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. Management hosts 2 x PowerEdge R640 server Processor Memory Storage adapter 2 x Intel Xeon SP-6152 Family 512 GB: 16 x 32 GB DDR4 RDIMMs PERC H730p Local storage 2 x 120 GB SSD (RAID 1) OS volume Network HBA 2 x 16 GB microsd in Internal SD Module Mellanox CX4 LX Dual Port PCIe NIC QLogic 2692 Dual Port FC PCIe Card OS Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 Storage array Unity 550F All Flash 25 x 7.68TB SSD drives (RAID 5, 6,10) Networking OOB 2 x Dell EMC Networking S4148T-ON switches ToR SAN fabric 2 x DEL EMC Networking S5232-ON switches Connectrix DS6500 (6505B or 6510B) 16 Gbps FC switches Licenses Cable requirements 15 x idrac9 Enterprise Microsoft System Center Datacenter Edition. OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center. Note: By default, an evaluation license for five servers is available. For more information, consult your Dell EMC representative. Consult your Dell EMC Sales representative. Ready Stack scaling Scale the Ready Stack by adding multiple compute nodes (pods) in the data center. As shown in the following figure, you can use the Dell EMC Networking Z9264 switch to create a simple yet scalable network. The Z9264 switches serve as the spine switches in the leaf-spine architecture. The Z9264 is a multiline rate switch that supports 10/25/40/50/100 GbE connectivity and can aggregate multiple racks with little or no oversubscription. When connecting multiple racks by using the 40/100 GbE uplinks from the rack, you can build a large fabric that supports multi-terabit clusters. The density of the Z9264 allows flattening of the network tiers, enabling you to create an equal-cost fabric from any point to any other point in the network. Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 23

24 Chapter 3: Configurations and Specifications Figure 5. Multiple compute pods scaled out by using leaf-spine architecture For large domain layer-2 requirements, use extended Virtual Link Trunking (evlt) on the Z9264, as shown in the following figure. The VLT pair that is formed can scale in terms of hundreds of servers inside multiple racks. Each rack has four 40/100 GbE links to the core network, providing enough bandwidth for all the traffic between each rack. Figure 6. Multiple compute pods scaled out by using evlt 24 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

25 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Chapter 4 Ready Stack Design This chapter presents the following topics: Introduction Compute design Network design Storage design Management design Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 25

26 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Introduction Compute design This chapter summarizes the design of all the main components of a production Ready Stack, including the physical compute server hardware, network fabric, storage infrastructure, software layers, and ongoing management. The latest Intel SP Skylake generation processors power Dell EMC Ready Stack. With up to 28 cores per CPU and clock speeds of up to 3.6 GHz in the PowerEdge rack servers, you can reduce CPU socket-based licensing costs and achieve greater VM density. Scale compute resources with Intel Xeon scalable processors, delivering a 27 percent increase in processing cores and a 50 percent increase in bandwidth over previous generations of Xeon processors. The PowerEdge rack server platforms support the RDIMM and Load Reduced DIMM (LRDIMM) memory types. LRDIMM uses an internal buffer to isolate electrical loading from the host memory controller. This buffer and isolation allow the use of quad-ranked DIMM to increase overall memory capacity. For general-purpose virtualization solutions, 2666 MT/s RDIMMs are recommended. You can configure memory in various modes from within the BIOS. Optimizer Mode, the default mode, is recommended for most virtualization use cases to provide an optimized memory performance. Modes such as mirror mode and spare mode are available for improved reliability and resiliency. The Mellanox CX4 LX 10/25 Gb dual-port Ethernet adapter is the recommended Ready Stack adapter for virtual workload and host communication. The QLogic 2692 Dual Port 16 Gb Fibre Channel Adapter is the recommended adapter for FC SAN storage connectivity. PowerEdge servers support various BIOS configuration profiles that control the processor, memory, and other options. Dell EMC recommends that you: Enable the Performance Optimized Virtualization profile Disable processor C-States and C1E to ensure the highest performance in a virtualized environment Enable Intel hyperthreading and virtualization features 26 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

27 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Compute server configuration This Ready Stack offers a selection of rack servers for compute infrastructure. The following table shows the recommended compute servers. Table 6. Recommended compute server configurations Components Server platform models Processors Memory (based on the server model) Details PowerEdge R440, R640, R740, or R740xd 1-2 x Intel Xeon SP Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Skylake processors 1-24 x 2666 MT/s RDIMMs, up to 768 GB of RAM 1-24 x 2666 MT/s LRDIMMs, up to 3 TB of RAM Network Adapter Host Bus Adapter Boot Device Mellanox CX4 LX 10/25 Gb Ethernet Network Adapter QLogic 2692 Dual Port FC Adapter Internal Dual SD Module (IDSDM) PERC H730p RAID Controller OOB server management idrac9 Enterprise Hypervisor Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V Windows OS configuration A high-level summary of common Hyper-V tuning steps includes: Minimize or disable unnecessary hardware devices and services to free up CPU cycles that other VMs can use (which also helps to reduce power consumption). Schedule tasks such as periodic maintenance, backups, virus scans, and patching to run after hours, and stagger start times when such operations overlap and are CPU- or I/O-intensive. Tune application workloads to reduce or eliminate unnecessary processes or activity. Use Microsoft PowerShell or other scripting tools to automate step-intensive repeatable tasks to ensure consistency and avoid human error (which reduces administration time). For more information about Hyper-V and Windows Server 2016, see the Microsoft article Virtualization in Windows Server. Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 27

28 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Hyper-V 2016 configuration We recommend the following best practices for configuring the Hyper-V host and deploying VMs: Do not overcommit resources. Even though Hyper-V allows overcommitting resources such as CPU and network, this can lead to performance degradation when the resource usage exceeds the available resources. Depending on your VM workload requirements, provision static or dynamic memory. For more information about VM memory sizing, see the Microsoft article Hyper-V Memory Performance. Provision compute resources. A vcpu is a representation of the physical core of a processor or threads/logical processors in the core. In Hyper-V, you can adjust the relative weights and reserves for a VM under Settings > Processor. Prioritize or deprioritize specific VMs to suit your needs. Determine the appropriate disk size for your workload. The dynamically expanding disk type works well for most workloads on Unity All Flash arrays. Because Unity arrays use thin provisioning, only data that is actually written to a virtual hard disk consumes space on the array, regardless of the disk type fixed, dynamic, or differencing. Therefore, the best disk type to choose depends often on the workload rather than how it impacts storage utilization. For workloads generating I/O, such as Microsoft SQL Server databases, Microsoft recommends using the fixed size virtual hard disk type for optimal performance. Use separate storage LUNs for data and logfiles. To rule out disk contention, Dell EMC recommends using separate LUNs. For best performance, create distinct LUNs for a server s data files and log files. Network design This section provides an overview of the network architecture, including compute and management server connectivity, and configuration details for the ToR and virtual switches. Network traffic The network architecture employs a VLT connection between the two ToR switches. The inherent redundancy of a non-vlt environment requires standby equipment, which drives up infrastructure costs and increases risks. In a VLT environment, all paths are active, adding immediate value and throughput while still protecting against hardware failures. VLT technology enables a server or bridge to uplink a physical trunk into more than one Networking S5232-ON switch by treating the uplink as one logical trunk. A VLT-connected pair of switches acts as a single switch to a connecting bridge or server. Both links from the bridge network can actively forward and receive traffic. VLT provides a replacement for Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)-based networks by providing both redundancy and full bandwidth utilization by using multiple active paths. The major benefits of VLT technology are: Dual control plane for highly available resilient network services Full utilization of the active Link Aggregation Group (LAG) interfaces Active/Active design for seamless operations during maintenance events 28 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

29 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design The Dell EMC Networking S5232-ON switches each provide six 40/100 GbE uplink ports. The VLT interconnect (VLTi) configuration in this architecture uses two 40/100 GbE ports from each ToR switch to provide a 200 GB data path between the switches. The following figure illustrates the Networking S5232-ON VLTi configuration. Figure 7. Networking S5232-ON VLTi configuration Hyper-V Virtual Switch LAN traffic network configuration Hyper-V Virtual Switch is a software-based layer-2 Ethernet network switch that is available in Hyper-V Manager when you install the Hyper-V server role. Hyper-V Virtual Switch includes programmatically managed and extensible capabilities to connect VMs to both virtual networks and the physical network. In addition, Hyper-V Virtual Switch provides policy enforcement for security, isolation, and service levels. Hyper-V Virtual Switch provides: Simplified virtual machine network configuration Enhanced network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities Support for network traffic segmentation The following figure shows the virtual distributed switch configuration for the management and compute servers. As shown in the diagram, hba0 and hba1 connect to the Connectrix switch. Figure 8. Distributed Virtual Switch for dual port configuration Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 29

30 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Dell EMC recommends using Hyper-V Integration Services, a suite of utilities in Microsoft Hyper-V that is designed to enhance the performance of a VM s guest operating system. The Integration Services suite improves VM management by replacing generic operating system driver files for the mouse, keyboard, video, network, and SCSI controller components. This suite also synchronizes time between the guest and host operating systems and can provide file interoperability and a cluster heartbeat. Storage design This Ready Stack uses the Unity x50f All Flash storage platform with vsphere integration that is connected to a 16 Gb FC storage network. The Unity x50f platform is a flexible storage product that is specifically designed for all-flash needs. Unity all-flash systems deliver consistent performance with low response times and are an excellent fit for mixed virtual workload requirements. Two Connectrix DS6505B or 6510B series switches make up the FC fabrics. Unity All Flash array models The following table shows a comparison of the Unity x50f All Flash storage arrays that are supported for the Ready Stack. The Disk Processor Enclosure (DPE) contains up to 25 SSD drives and includes two storage processors. Additional drive enclosures can be used to expand overall storage capacity. For more information, see the Dell EMC Unity Hybrid Storage Specification Sheet. Figure 9. Unity All Flash systems comparison Components Unity 350F Unity 450F Unity 550F Unity 650F Minimum/maximum drives Array enclosure 6/150 6/250 6/500 6/1000 A 2U DPE with drives Drive enclosure All models support 2U 25-drive and 3U 80-drive trays for 2.5 drives RAID options 1/0, 5, 6 SAS I/O ports per array 4 embedded 4-lane* 12 Gb/s SAS 4 embedded 4-lane 12 Gb/s SAS 4 embedded 4-lane 12 Gb/s SAS 4 embedded 4-lane 12Gb/s SAS 6 x 4-lane, or 2 x 4- lane with I/O module 6 x 4-lane, or 2 x 4- lane with I/O module Host connectivity 4 embedded ports: 8/16 Gb FC, 10 Gb IP/iSCSI, or 1Gb RJ45 CNA ports per array 4 additional ports per I/O module 30 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

31 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Components Unity 350F Unity 450F Unity 550F Unity 650F Maximum raw capacity (drive type dependent) 2.4 PBs 4.0 PBs 8.0 PBs 16.0 PBs IOPS (100 percent reads, 8K blocks) Up to 130K Up to 305K Up to 395K Up to 440K I/O modules per array Up to 4 Up to 4 Up to 4 Up to 4 *PCIe lane. For more information, see Dell EMC Unity Hybrid Storage. Storage fabric configuration This solution is configured with two FC fabrics for high availability. For the Unity x50f arrays, FC port 0 from each controller connects to the FC fabric switch A, while port 1 connects to FC fabric switch B. Unity x50f arrays have expansion slots that can provide additional front-end (FC) or back-end (mini-sas HD) ports. However, the connectivity that is shown in the following figure does not address the usage of such expansion modules. For more information, see the Dell EMC Unity Family Hardware Information Guide. Figure 10. Dell EMC Unity x50f storage fabric configuration Storage connectivity for compute and management servers Each management and rack compute server is configured with a QLogic 2692 dual-port FC adapter for connecting to the storage fabrics, with each port connecting to the Connectrix switch, as shown in the following figure. Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 31

32 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Figure 11. PowerEdge rack server SAN connectivity Unity 50F enclosures Unity x50f series storage arrays are equipped with two back-end buses that utilize mini- SAS HD connectivity. Connect any additional enclosures so that the load is balanced equally between the available buses. Unity x50f arrays have expansion slots that can provide additional front-end or back-end (mini-sas HD) ports. The connectivity shown in the following figure does not address the usage of such expansion modules. The Disk Processor Enclosure is on Bus 0. Therefore, the first expansion enclosure must be on Bus 1 while the second expansion enclosure must be on Bus 0, and so on. Figure 12. Dell EMC Unity x50f storage array back-end connectivity 32 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

33 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Storage configuration For both rack server platforms, each server s HBA port 1 connects to Brocade switch 1, while HBA port 2 connects to Brocade switch 2. These ports are then zoned with the Unity array target ports to enable storage access for the hypervisor hosts. Management design Unity All Flash technology supports thin provisioning with Hyper-V. Introduction This section provides an overview of the management infrastructure and the software components that run on VMs within the management cluster of this Ready Stack solution. Management infrastructure The management infrastructure consists of three PowerEdge R640 servers that form a cluster. Management components are virtualized to provide high availability. Redundant 10/25 Gb Ethernet uplinks to the network infrastructure and redundant 16Gbps FC uplinks to the storage array that is combined with failover clustering ensure that management components stay online. Dual Networking S4148T switches provide OOB connectivity. idrac ports in each management and compute cluster connect to this switch. Agentless OOB monitoring and agent-based monitoring with OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) are available for 14th generation PowerEdge servers. The management software components include: Microsoft SCVMM Dell EMC OMIMSSC Dell EMC IDPA The following figure depicts the management infrastructure. Figure 13. Management Infrastructure Management server The management software components for Ready Stack require a nominal amount of virtual server resources. Although the components can reside on the compute server cluster alongside the compute workload, Dell EMC recommends that you run them on a dedicated management server cluster to achieve less resource contention. The following table describes the optional management cluster, which consists of a minimum of two PowerEdge R640 servers (three are recommended). To use external storage, which is preferred, connect the management cluster hosts to Unity shared storage. Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 33

34 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Table 7. Management server configuration Components Server platform Details 2 or 3 x Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 Processor Memory (depends on server model) Network adapter Boot device RAID controller OOB server management Hypervisor 2 x Intel Xeon SP Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum Skylake 1-24 x 2,666 MT/s RDIMMs/LRDIMMs Minimum 128 GB RAM recommended Mellanox CX4 LX 10/25 GbE NIC Internal Dual SD Module (IDSDM), or Dell EMC BOSS controller card + with 2 M.2 sticks 120 GB (RAID 1), LP Dell EMC PERC H730p idrac9 Enterprise Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V Dell EMC OpenManage Integration for Microsoft Hyper-V OMIMSSC provides agentless, operating system- and hypervisor-agnostic configuration and deployment as well as uniform BIOS, driver, and firmware updates for 14th generation PowerEdge servers. Automated processes reduce the steps, time, and costs that are required to configure the PowerEdge servers from a bare-metal state. The preparation of remote one-to-many operating system deployments within multivendor operating system and hypervisor environments is also automated. Management software resources The management software components run on VMs that reside in the management cluster. The following table shows the management components in the bundle and the recommended VM sizing of those components: Table 8. Recommended VM sizing of management components Component VM CPU cores NIC SCVMM The values that are provided in this table are for the SCVMM server only. For information about the other SCVMM and SQL Server component requirements, see the Microsoft article System requirements for System Center Virtual Machine Manager Dell EMC OMIMSSC Dell EMC IDPA DP4400 For details, see the following IDPA DP4400 documents: Specification Sheet Installation Guide 34 Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

35 Chapter 4: Ready Stack Design Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 35

36 Chapter 5: References Chapter 5 References This chapter presents the following topics: Dell EMC documentation Microsoft documentation Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage

37 Chapter 5: References Dell EMC documentation The following Dell EMC documentation provides additional and relevant information. Access to these documents depends on your login credentials. If you do not have access to a document, contact your Dell EMC representative. Brocade Fabric OS Web Tools Administrator s Guide Integrated Data Protection Appliance (IDPA) DP4400 Data Sheet Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller 9 Dell EMC Connectrix DS6500B Switches Specification Sheet Dell EMC Networking S4148T-ON Specification Sheet Dell EMC Networking Z9264F-ON Specification Sheet Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 Installation and Service Manual Dell EMC Unity Hybrid Storage Specification Sheet Dell EMC Unity Family Installation Guide Dell EMC Unity Storage with Microsoft Hyper-V Dell EMC Unity: Unisphere Overview Simplified Storage Management Dell EMC Unity: Best Practices Guide Additional resources The following websites provide links to relevant documentation: Connectrix DS-6510B documentation Dell EMC Unity documentation Dell OpenManage Integration for Microsoft System Center OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft System Center idrac9 Home Microsoft documentation For additional information from Microsoft, see Microsoft Hyper-V Server Dell EMC Ready Stack: Microsoft Hyper-V on PowerEdge 14G Servers and Unity Storage 37